I am using Symantec Backup Exec 12.0 Rev 1364 to back up an Exchange 2007 (Version 8.1, Build 240.6) on a Windows SBS 2008 (SP2) server. I do GRT backups nightly to a rotating set of external (USB) backup hard drives. (I also do file backups, but I don't think that's relevant to this issue.) Last week, I got a report from a user who had accidentally overwritten some of his contact records with an older version. I successfully restored a copy of his contact folder using the following process: Duplicated the GRT backup set, thus converting it to .bkf files (per the instructions on this web page ). Previously I had tried to restore directly from the GRT backup, but that restore failed with an error about creating an empty restore set; doing this duplication first seemed to take care of that issue. Created a Recovery Storage Group using the Exchange Console. To avoid taking up too much space on the drive where the mailbox store is located, I chose to store the logs and database for the RSG on a different drive. Restored the entire mailbox database from the copy of the backup set to the RSG. Used the Recover-Mailbox cmdlet in the Exchange shell to restore the contents of the user's Contacts folder from the RSG to a subfolder of his mailbox in the online mailbox database (in the First Storage Group). This process was successful, but when he examined the restored files he found that I hadn't gone back far enough in the backups to find a clean copy of his contacts. So I tried the same process with an earlier backup, but this time the restore (following exactly the same procedure) failed with error 0xe000fed1 ("A failure occurred querying the Writer status"). The detailed error message from the Backup Exec job log is as follows: Restore- \\SERVER1\Microsoft Information Store\Recovery Storage Group Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: 0x800423f3, State: 0013. V-79-57344-65233 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status. V-79-57344-65233 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status. Writer Name: Exchange Server, Writer ID: {76FE1AC4-15F7-4BCD-987E-8E1ACB462FB7}, Last error: 0x800423f3, State: 0014. V-79-57344-65233 - A failure occurred querying the Writer status. There are other errors in the Event Log immediately before the Backup Exec error that I believe further explain what went wrong: =============================================== Level: Error Date and Time: 12/31/2009 10:23:31 AM Source: Backup Exec Event ID: 34113 Task Category: None ----------------------------------------------- Backup Exec Alert: Job Failed (Server: ""SERVER1"") (Job: ""Restore 00081"") Restore 00081 -- The job failed with the following error: A failure occurred querying the Writer status. For more information, click the following link: http://eventlookup.veritas.com/eventlookup/EventLookup.jhtml" =============================================== Level: Error Date and Time: 12/31/2009 10:23:30 AM Source: MSExchangeIS Event ID: 9619 Task Category: Exchange VSS Writer ----------------------------------------------- Exchange VSS Writer failed with error code -2147024809 when processing the post-restore event. If any databases were restored, they are likely in a dirty-shutdown state. =============================================== Level: Error Date and Time: 12/31/2009 10:23:30 AM Source: MSExchangeIS Event ID: 9737 Task Category: Exchange VSS Writer ----------------------------------------------- Exchange VSS Writer failed restoring a backup with error code -2147024809 when comparing restore targets for storage group 'Recovery Storage Group' with information in the Active Directory. =============================================== Level: Error Date and Time: 12/31/2009 10:23:30 AM Source: MSExchangeIS Event ID: 9735 Task Category: Exchange VSS Writer ----------------------------------------------- Exchange VSS Writer cannot restore a backup to the storage group 'Recovery Storage Group' because the database specified for restore ('Mailbox Database.edb' in 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group') does not match any of the databases in the target storage group. The original GUID for the database is '17cfaea4-ade2-49c5-b407-b9b268432e3a', but the target GUID specified in the Restore Options string is '17cfaea4-ade2-49c5-b407-b9b268432e3a', which does not exist in the Active Directory. =============================================== Level: Error Date and Time: 12/31/2009 10:23:16 AM Source: MSExchangeIS Event ID: 9621 Task Category: Exchange VSS Writer ----------------------------------------------- Exchange VSS Writer failed with error code -2147024809 when processing the pre-restore event. =============================================== Level: Error Date and Time: 12/31/2009 10:23:16 AM Source: MSExchangeIS Event ID: 9737 Task Category: Exchange VSS Writer ----------------------------------------------- Exchange VSS Writer failed restoring a backup with error code -2147024809 when comparing restore targets for storage group 'Recovery Storage Group' with information in the Active Directory. =============================================== Level: Error Date and Time: 12/31/2009 10:23:16 AM Source: MSExchangeIS Event ID: 9735 Task Category: Exchange VSS Writer ----------------------------------------------- Exchange VSS Writer cannot restore a backup to the storage group 'Recovery Storage Group' because the database specified for restore ('Mailbox Database.edb' in 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Mailbox\First Storage Group') does not match any of the databases in the target storage group. The original GUID for the database is '17cfaea4-ade2-49c5-b407-b9b268432e3a', but the target GUID specified in the Restore Options string is '17cfaea4-ade2-49c5-b407-b9b268432e3a', which does not exist in the Active Directory. =============================================== Level: Information Date and Time: 12/31/2009 10:23:16 AM Source: MSExchangeIS Event ID: 9726 Task Category: Exchange VSS Writer ----------------------------------------------- Exchange VSS Writer will restore a backup set to storage group 'Recovery Storage Group', which is a different storage group than the one from which the backup was originally taken. Note that the first error (Event ID 9735) says that the VSS writer can not restore the backup because the database does not match, but then it shows the two GUIDs and they are exactly the same. So far, I have done the following (attempting the restore again -- including deleting and recreating the RSG -- after each step, and always getting the same error): Checked the status of the VSS writer using the <tt>vssadmin</tt> utility. All writers, including the Microsoft Exchange Writer, report a state of "<tt>[1] Stable</tt> " and last error of "<tt>No error</tt> ". Restarted the Volume Shadow Copy Service. Restarted the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. I'm out of ideas. Does anyone know why the restore worked once and then stopped working? Is my focus on this strange error from the VSS writer on the right track? Thanks, Patrick Correia Atlas Technology Consulting support@atlastc.com

Patrick,Does your restore job define more than one database (e.g. your mailbox database and public folder database)? Apparently Backup Exec 12 can only restore a single database per job.This may help:http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/302838.htm